The Reluctant Raconteur:

theatlantic: Memes Are People Too: Meet the Viral-Video Stars...

Tue, 08 May 2012 20:14:33 -0500

Memes Are People Too: Meet the Viral-Video Stars of ROFLcon

The “ROFL” in “ROFLCon” is an outdated web acronym — Rolling on the Floor Laughing — basically an old-timey way of saying “LOL.” ROFLCon uses it ironically. The vintage webspeak is characteristic of the event — a conference that is equally concerned with the past, present, and future of Internet culture. The two-day event, held at MIT last weekend, combined the best elements of a fan convention with a truly academic conference. Don’t let the goofy names of panels, like “Adventures in Aca-meme-ia,” fool you; the featured panelists and giddy audience members were all too eager to dive into serious discussion.

Christina Xu and Tim Hwang, who co-founded the conference in 2008 as Harvard undergrads, curated a lively mix of panels, bringing together speakers from around the world. Topics ranged from how people in China use visual humor to evade censorship (“Global Lulzes”), to what to do when a YouTube video of your kid suddenly goes viral (“Honey I Memed the Kids!”). Amid the chaos, a central issue took shape; web video is radically reshaping pop culture. […]

In this eight-minute documentary, produced and edited by Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg, we discovered that even though their lives have been turned upside down, and in some cases totally transformed, by Internet fame, they’re people too. They’re pretty awesome people, actually.

Featuring: Antoine Dodson, Double Rainbow guy, David (of “David After Dentist” fame), the maker of Nyan Cat, and many more of the Internet’s favorite people.

Watch. It’s excellent.

These people are from the internet.

Also relevant: The alt text for this xkcd comic from a few years back reads: “I’m waiting for the day when, if you tell someone ‘I’m from the internet,’ instead of laughing they just ask ‘oh what part?’” I think we might be there. (Though the map of the internet has since been updated.)

algo que me hace muy feliz...

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 17:08:00 -0600

In less than a month, I’m going to be in Havana, Cuba—definitely not a place to which I imagined I’d be able to travel any time soon. I’m so excited to be spending two weeks of my Christmas break exploring, writing, and getting out of the chilly Midwest.

The writing workshop is a 3 s.h. class, so we are meeting every day and that is going to be intense and at some point, undoubtedly, annoying, but I’m glad that I will have a record of basically every day, whether I feel like making time for it or not.

Then when I get back, maybe I’ll actually use this blog and post some of the stuff here. Internet and phone won’t really be available while I’m there, (glorious! though mildly frightening for Mom and Dad), so I will probably bombard tumblr with all the details over the first few weeks of next semester—my last semester at college (eek!) and hopefully my first that isn’t completely brutal. All of the insanity the past two years means that I can finally take a lighter load and maybe have some time to oh, I dunno… Find a job and a place to live after I get kicked out into the cruel, “real” world? Better get back to thesis editing and paper writing so that that can actually happen though.

Cheers.

Hairs are chopped off and eyes are super-puffed from all of this...

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 18:03:31 -0500

Hairs are chopped off and eyes are super-puffed from all of this Iowa pollen, but I’m trying to be excited about this semester. I survived summer classes and am on track to graduate in May (hooray!), but have never been so nervous about starting school again. After cramming a year of Italian studies into an eight week summer course (10 credits! Bam!), I am kind of worried that taking two upper level Spanish courses is going to absolutely kick my butt. And I want to be completely awesome at my internship but don’t really know what it is going to be like yet. Guess I’ll find out tomorrow. For now though, I’m going to go ahead and enjoy the last night of my summer and put off my statement of interest for my thesis workshop until the last possible minute. Some things never change.

Chorizo & Garlic Tapas

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:15:09 -0500

gocookyourself:

280g Chorizo / 4 Cloves Garlic / 2 Tbsns Sherry Vinegar / 2 Tsps Honey / Oil

SLICE chorizo into small discs

PLACE large pan on high heat, add drop of oil

SKIN garlic and slice finely

THROW chorizo into pan

FRY for 2-3 minutes

ADD garlic and cook until browning

REMOVE from heat

ADD sherry vinegar

DRIZZLE over honey

PLACE back on heat and stir for 1 minute

SERVE

FOLLOW us on Facebook

GO COOK YOURSELF

This just happened. Mine looked more like a crumbly sausage pile than like little discs, but it was a delicious crumbly sausage pile.

Last week of sophunior year!

Wed, 11 May 2011 00:18:07 -0500

Still working on digging my way out of a giant pile of take home finals,

but the end is finally in sight!

Then I get a glorious three week break from homework and paper-writing before my summer classes start and I am once again enslaved to my pursuit of higher education. I plan on trying to like it though. I may have two hours of “Intensive Beginning Italian” every single morning for two months (8 credits. = worth it, I hope), and two online classes that will force me to improve my time management skills, but I will also get to hang out in Iowa City for most of the summer. That means lots of live music and sunshine and getting fresh stuff from the farmer’s market and eating it. I can’t wait!

guilty. :[ Also guilty of spending more time reading...

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 18:52:58 -0500

guilty. :[

Also guilty of spending more time reading collegeproblems|tumblr than writing my final papers. Oops.

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:57:00 -0500

What's even more important to me than my Hawkeyes?

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 00:41:21 -0500

Socially responsible consumer practices!

Tonight, I attended a skype session with two workers from the Alta Gracia apparel factory in the Dominican Republic. Alta Gracia is owned by Knights Apparel, one of the largest manufacturers of collegiate licensed clothing in the United States. What’s special about Alta Gracia, though, in addition to safe work conditions and reasonable hours, is that the factory pays its workers a “living wage,” an hourly amount calculated to actually provide them with enough money to feed their families and send their kids to school.

UI Students Against Sweatshops at the University of Iowa was actually hugely influential in the opening of this factory, which has only been around for a little more than a year. In that time, it has completely changed the lives of the workers as well as reviving an entire community that had been devastated by the loss of jobs that accompanied the closing of the previous factory. In order to keep Alta Gracia open and keep the town of Villa Altagracia from being plunged back into poverty, people need to spread the word about the choice of Sweatshop-free clothing, and march down to the University Book Store and buy some in order to send the message that UI students want to support companies with ethical business practices. The bookstore is even running a promotion April 13-17 offering a 25% discount on all Alta Gracia products.

I’m getting mine tomorrow. You should too!

Read more about the Alta Gracia project here, or check out this article from the New York Times. And seriously, go buy a shirt!

Starting this fall, I will be spending a lot of time in this very cool place (the oldest residential...

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 15:32:00 -0500

Starting this fall, I will be spending a lot of time in this very cool place (the oldest residential dwelling still standing in Iowa City, a farmhouse built around 1840!) as the 2011-2012 Editing and Publishing Intern for the University of Iowa Press.

I am super excited to be exposed to so many aspects of the editing and publishing process, and to build that resume that will be so important when I get kicked out into the cruel, cold, real world next spring. I also have a thesis adviser now and a decent idea of what my topic is going to be, so now all I need to do is squeeze in enough semester hours over the summer and hopefully get all of the fall classes I want and then graduating a year early will be a sure thing instead of just a crazy idea that I came up with this semester. Honestly, I am kind of surprised that it seems to be working. But so, so happy.

Now I just need to make these final papers and projects happen. Ready…. GO.

Since spring break, I have:

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 23:04:15 -0500

Spent a weird morning in Menomenee, Wisconsin, drinking bad chai and eating a pretty good scone while waiting to bum a ride back from Minneapolis.
Read two books.
Made two milkshakes.
Written an annotated bibliography that was due yesterday even though the paper isn’t due until May.
Sat around and moped while wearing a sweatshirt I stole from Justin because I was sad that I had to leave Minneapolis.
Cut my bangs.
Baked cookies.
Applied for two internship/jobs.
Given my superdark jeans a bath in hopes that they will stop turning my legs blue.
Almost caught up on homework/life.

But I have not even come close to choosing a thesis topic or ask anyone to by my adviser. I really thought that I would have more time to think about this. I know that a 30 page research project is not a huge deal, but I do kind of want to secretly enjoy doing it a little bit. Being done with school in another year simultaneously seems like the impossibly distant future and the way-too-close-omg-freakout future. And while I absolutely do not want to be here for two more years, sometimes it just seems like I will never have the time to cram in everything that I want to accomplish before leaving, or I feel like I’ve wasted valuable time and passed up awesome opportunities. I kind of wish I wouldn’t have spent so much time and energy (and money. oops.) on chemistry classes. Having those be English credits instead would have made these next few semesters so much less stressful. I know it is dumb to whine about it now, and really, really hope that someday all of my knowledge of molecular structure and interaction benefits me in a more valuable way than helping me answer trivia questions or complete crossword puzzles.

I know I claimed that I planned to write interesting and meaninful things on here, but I am currently too overwhelmed by the above to do that. So instead, I am regressing to my routine, emotional tumblr outpouring. Hopefully interesting and meaningful things are coming.

Important news:

Sat, 05 Mar 2011 17:15:56 -0600

Betty Crocker chocolate chip muffin mix doubles as chocolate chip pancake mix. Mornings just got more delicious.

Nonfiction piece, lovingly broken up with a "read more" link, so as not to monopolize your Dashboard space:

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 23:21:00 -0600

Taking Care of His Girls

I think I’ll have another beer and sit here with my granddaughters a while longer,” my Grandpa said for at least the third time.

He, my sister, and I sat around the kitchen table in my grandparents’ house—the same, old kitchen table where innumerable birthday candles had been blown out, where dozens of Thanksgiving feasts had been consumed, and where thousands of laughs had floated over its scratched and scarred surface. The kitchen light was the only one lit in the entire house, just as it often had been when my sister and I were younger and our family would stay there for the night. My mom would leave the kitchen light on for Grandma and Grandpa, who would go out with friends and wouldn’t return until long after Michelle and I had been tucked into bed in my mom’s old room. Now that one light just felt unfamiliar and peculiar—like waiting for someone who wouldn’t be coming back, or like trying to decide how to refer to the house that had always been “Grandma and Grandpa’s.”

“You know, your Grandma and I were together ever since high school.”

Fifty-five years. I knew. “Tell us how you met, again,” I requested anyway, longing to better understand the woman who had always made me soup and attended my soccer games before she was too sick to do those things. I tried to imagine her at my age—playing clarinet in the marching band and worrying about boys and math tests. I wanted to picture her the way my Grandpa did when he told the old stories and smiled at the memory of her young, pretty face.

“Well, it used to be that you went out on dates every weekend. Different weekend, different girl—that’s just how we did it. It wasn’t serious or anything unless you kept asking out the same girl. One time my buddy and I took out two girls from Sterling—your Grandma and another girl. Your Grandma was his date. They didn’t hit it off and neither did me and the other girl, but I asked your Grandma out the next weekend. She didn’t say no! And she just kept not saying no, so I just kept asking.”

He took a drink and I pulled my legs up onto the chair and close to my chest—a little kid again, waiting to hear more of my bedtime story.

“Did I tell you about the time I beat a guy up for calling her cute?”

“You did not!”

“I did! She was in the band, you know, so I went to Sterling football games to watch—wore my Rock Falls letterman jacket and sat there in the bleachers. Those boys didn’t like that anyway because our teams were old rivals, but when one started talking about your Grandma I just stood up, turned around, and popped him square in the jaw.”

It was such a stretch to imagine my Grandpa, who enjoyed gardening and accumulating lawn ornaments, who had often warned his grandchildren of the dangers of jumping on the bed or pinching their fingers in doors, had ever punched a man in the face.

“No way! Did they kick you out for that!?”

“Sure did.”

It wasn’t that surprising though. Of course he “popped” the guy. He was always looking out for my Grandma like that. Punching rude guys. Yelling at the kids for talking back to her. Driving her to countless doctor’s appointments and chemotherapy treatments. Spending weeks at the side of the bed that she never got up from. Picking out the most pink and flowery casket ever made. He looked out for all of his girls—even if that just meant telling them stories to put off going to sleep in a house that was startlingly empty and silent after a long day of family, friends and the funeral director passing in and out.

“I think I’ll have another beer,” he said.

So, I lied. I am far busier now than I have ever been before....

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 23:16:04 -0600

So, I lied. I am far busier now than I have ever been before. Did I ever mention that I am going to graduate a year early now? I’m going to graduate a year early now. So I have no time. Ever. Here’s a Cloud Cult video and a short piece of nonfiction from last semester.

This tumblr is (hopefully) about to undergo a makeover.

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 16:46:51 -0600

I did not intend to use it as a place to semi-regularly dump records of my feelings, observations and experiences, but that is basically what I have been doing with it.

The problem isn’t so much that it is about me—being unable to extricate myself from myself, I am always going to be somewhat present in whatever appears here—but that this sort of record, even if it is just for me, stands alone and out of the context of everything else that is relevant to me right now. Or me later. Or anyone else ever.

So. In the future, I (hopefully) will use this as more of a place where my ideas intersect and overlap with the things that I am learning or am supposed to be learning, and where I relate those brief shining moments where the things that they teach me in class actually fit together beautifully and meaningfully and make me believe that a liberal arts education was, in fact, a good idea.

And as soon as I think of a less stupid title for this blog, that will be changing as well.

I miss this guy already. It is so sad that he is not going to be...

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 09:55:17 -0600

I miss this guy already.

It is so sad that he is not going to be there when I go back to Iowa. Who wants to spend a semester in Italy anyway? Seriously?

Okay, so maybe I’m just jealous…

I’ve noticed that somewhere along the line, I’ve stopped referring to Peoria as...

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 16:54:00 -0600

I’ve noticed that somewhere along the line, I’ve stopped referring to Peoria as “home.” It just doesn’t feel right anymore. Even though my parents are still here and I lived here the first eighteen years of my life, I haven’t missed it since I’ve been away. I spend the majority of my time in Iowa City and I spend the majority of that time wanting to be in Minneapolis. It’s the only city that has ever made me fall in love with it like that. Now I’m just collecting reasons to relocate.

My apologies to the Land of Lincoln.

Bad Children Get Coal

Thu, 23 Dec 2010 15:16:23 -0600

fakescience:

I’m definitely getting solar panels this year. Yesssss.

Dear everyone who sees me wearing this tonight, Please try to...

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 16:32:00 -0600

Dear everyone who sees me wearing this tonight,

Please try to contain your jealousy. And yes, you can touch the fur.

Love,
Stefanie

Too sexy for study music.So I stopped studying.

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:24:35 -0600

Too sexy for study music.
So I stopped studying.

End of the semester portfolios make me want to never. write....

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 14:44:48 -0600

End of the semester portfolios make me want to never. write. anything. ever. again. And I think that I will include that observation in my two-page, single-spaced reflection on my work.